When the Nobel Prizes in physics, chemistry, and physiology or medicine are revealed next week, the brightest scientific minds will be catapulted from scholarly obscurity into the public eye.
Established over a century ago by Swedish businessman Alfred Nobel, the awards honor innovative work that often takes several decades to finish.
It is infamously difficult to anticipate the winners of science's highest awards. The names of the shortlist and the nominators are kept under wraps, and records that disclose the specifics of the selection procedure are kept out of the public domain for fifty years.